


Just Because it BURNS

by laughingmoonlight



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Boys Kissing, F/M, M/M, Poisoning, Snakes, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 10,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25505845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingmoonlight/pseuds/laughingmoonlight
Summary: Kai wonders what universe he's fallen into when he wakes up for the third time and Cole is fluffing his pillow, tucking his sheets in, and saying "Can I get you anything?"
Relationships: Cole/Kai (Ninjago), Nya/Jay Walker, P.I.X.A.L./Zane (Ninjago)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 151





	1. One

Kai wakes up uncertain of himself. His vision is fuzzy around the edges, and it seems to take a long time to make out the shapes around him. He’s hot, too, like someone has the furnace up to a million degrees. Or maybe it was his element kicking in?

Something else is off, too. There’s a sharp pain coming from his left shoulder, achy and still throbbing. He wants to reach up to touch it, to see what happened to him, to apply pressure maybe, but he can’t seem to find the strength to lift any of his limbs.

“He’s awake!” A voice calls, and then a lot of colored blobs are hovering over him. “Kai, can you hear us?”

“Don’t make him waste his strength,” someone scolds, and then he feels himself being lifted up, but he can’t actually move, he realizes. “Kai, you’ve been poisoned. We’ve destroyed the Serpentine, and your power should take care of the paralytic agent now. Here,” the disembodied voice shoves something up against his lips, “you need to drink this. It will take the pain away and make you sleep.”

“It’s okay, Kai,” the person behind him says. “We’ll take care of you.”

Kai does as he’s told, swallows the sweet tasting liquid that’s poured into his mouth, and then feels someone’s hand press gently against his head before he drifts off.


	2. Two

When he wakes up again, he’s relieved to find his vision clear and his ability to use his limbs returned. It takes a minute, actually, but he’s able to lift his right arm and rub at his eyes. The small motion exhausts him. He remembers someone--Wu, he thinks--telling him he’d been poisoned.

By what, though? The last thing he remembers was Jay trying to make them all eat squid for breakfast… when had they gone to fight the Serpentine? How much time had he lost?

How long had he been asleep, he wonders, as his stomach growls loudly.

He looks down to investigate him stomach making noise, and freezes when he sees a head resting next to his leg. Cole has his arms crossed on the side of the bed, his head slumped over them, and his eyes are fluttering gently. He’s sleeping in what’s probably a terribly uncomfortable position, but he looks almost as exhausted as Kai feels.

Kai reaches out, tries to jostle one of Cokes hands, but can’t keep the effort up for more than a second. “Co...le,” he says, and his voice sounds horribly weak. He clears his throat to try again, and Cole’s head snaps up.

“Kai,” Cole jumps forward, his face full of concern and worry and his hands immediately going for Kai’s forehead, his cheek, and then pushing him back down into the bed. “You need to rest! How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?”

Kai tries to shake his head, can’t manage it. “Feel tired,” he mumbles instead, and Cole’s brow furrows. Kai has the presence of mind to wonder what Cole is doing here, where everyone else is, but he can’t actually bring himself to care around the weight on his chest and the dryness of his throat. 

“Water, please?”

Cole reaches for the bedside table, picks up a glass and holds it to Kai’s lips for him while he glugs it down. He makes a small wave for Coke when he’s finished, and the glass disappears. Kai doesn’t realize he’s closed his eyes until he feels Cole’s hand on his forehead again. “It looks like you’re fever has broken, at least.”

Cole says it like he’s sad, like more should have happened, and Kai opens his eyes. “Happened?” he squeaks out, and realizes that even if Cole answers him, he won’t be awake to hear it.

“Later,” Cole says, and he moves to sit next to Kai on the bed, places a hand over one of Kai's. “Go back to sleep.”


	3. Three

Kai wonders what universe he’s fallen into when he wakes up for the third time and Cole is still there, fluffing his pillow and tucking his sheets in around him. Kai eyes him for a moment before shuffling back down into the bed. “Welcome back, sleeping beauty,” Cole says, placing a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “Can I get you anything?”

“I need food like you need comedy lessons,” Kai says, and he finds he has the strength to shift a little in the bed, but can’t because of Cole’s tucking job. It makes Cole laugh, which okay, definitely a parallel universe. Cole never thinks he’s funny.

“Good to see you’re starting to get back to normal,” Cole says, and then he’s pressing something into Kai’s hand. Kai looks down to find a juice box there. “Here, drink this. I’ll go get you something more.”

Cole doesn’t take his hand away, looks at Kai for a really long moment before he shakes his head, gets up and goes out of the room. Kai stares after him, wondering what that was about. He goes to open the juice box, but finds pulling the straw off of it especially difficult. He flexes his fingers, opens and closes his fist, trying to make his body respond. He tries to pull the straw from its wrapper, realizes that if this is so difficult there is no way he’ll be able to punch the straw into the top of the box and scowls. He keeps trying, though.

He’s starting to get frustrated when Nya peeks her head in the door. “Kai!”

He looks up, smiles at her. “Hey,” he greets, and she bounces over to the bed, wraps her arms around him in a quick hug.

When she pulls away she sits on the bed and says, “I’m so glad you’re okay! We were really starting to get worried.” She looks down at the juice box in his hands, and Kai glares at it. “Need a hand?”

“I didn’t really want it anyway,” Kai says, attempting to push it aside, but Nya smiles, grabs it from his hand and quickly tears open the straw wrapper and pushes the straw in.

She passes it back to him. “Sensei said you’d be really weak for a while, remember, at least until all of the poison is out of your system.”

“Yeah,” Kai says, after he’s sipped some of the fruit punch out of the box gratefully. “About that. What happened?”

Nya raises her eyebrows. “You-you don’t remember?”

Kai shakes his head. “Last thing I knew, we were trying to convince Jay that squid was not breakfast food.”

Nya half-smiles at the memory. “Yeah, we totally didn’t win that one.” Then her face goes worried again. “You don’t remember anything else?”

Kai sips his juice, stares at her. After a moment he says, “I remember Cole helping me drink a glass of water, and tucking me into bed like an infant just now.” As if on cue, Kai has to stifle a yawn.

“Yeah,” Nya says, a look of amusement crossing her face. “He’s been pretty vigilant about taking care of you the past few days.”

“Days?” Kai says, sputtering. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Well, you haven’t really been…” she pauses, watches Kai fiddle with the now empty juice box. “Since Tuesday,” Nya informs him, taking the empty juice box from his hands and tossing it in the trashcan. “It’s Saturday.

“Crap,” Kai says, and Nya smiles at him weakly.

“Don’t worry, everything’s under control. Sensei warned us you could be out of commission for a week or two.” Nya says, like that’s supposed to be comforting.

“What did I say about not wearing him out?” Cole’s voice intones, coming through the doorway with a tray.

“What, the sick guy’s not allowed visitors?” Kai jokes, but he’s so incredibly happy to see Cole now that he has food with him. Nya moves out of the way, and Cole sets down the tray over Kai’s lap. He can smell the chicken noodle soup and herbal tea already. His stomach growls loudly.

“The sick guy can have visitors when he can lift both hands over his head and feed himself,” Cole says, and Kai looks at him with a question.

“What?” He asks, baffled.

Cole’s smile fades. “You,” he starts, then pauses, apprehension covering his face. He sits down, looks in Kai's eyes. “Yesterday,” he says cautiously. “You were in and out all afternoon. I had to spoon feed you yogurt.” Kai’s eyes widen comically, but no one laughs. “Zane and Jay had to help you change clothes?"

Kai looks between them, shakes his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Cole looks over at Nya, who bites her lip. “He was just saying he doesn’t remember the attack, or anything after breakfast Tuesday morning.”

Cole looks back at Kai, his face suddenly hard, and Kau tries to figure out what’s going on other than the fact that he was poisoned. They both look so worried that Kai’s stomach starts to twist. Was this not part of the poisoning thing, then?

Cole looks down at the soup, hands Kai the spoon. “I think we should go get Sensei,” he tells Nya, and then to Kai, “Eat your soup before it gets cold.”

As they stand, Cole stops, looks back, his face looking weird and unnatural. “Call me if-if you need help,” he stutters, and then he turns, walks out of the room behind Nya.

Kai spoons the soup into his mouth, finds out he doesn’t have total control of his mouth yet, spills some soup on his shirt, and curses. This is going to be a hell of a week.


	4. Four

The snake looks like a new breed, is sort of scorpion-y with a dash of cobra, and avoiding its stinger is proving to be a problem. He shoots them all with some yellow goop that melts off of their gi's easily enough, but when they get close enough to attack him, they don’t expect him to be powerful enough to drain them.

He swings at Kai with his staff, and a wave of nausea and electricity shoot through him. He hits the ground, feels the power drain out of him, and before he can do anything the snake is over him, his giant stinger of a tail sticking hard into Kai’s shoulder.

_-_

_He’s certain he’s falling, at first, only then he realizes it’s more like bouncing, really. His vision is blurred red, and he has just enough strength around the burning in his chest to reach out and grab whatever is thrashing him around._

“Hang on,” he says as _Kai_ grips his black gi. “We’re almost there, _Kai_. Don’t you give up!”

_-_

The room is dark. _Cole’s_ face is next to his, his eyes half lidded, and somewhere Kai can feel Cole’s hand over his chest wound.

_“It feels better,” Kai mumbles. “When you’re here.”_   
_“_

_I won’t go anywhere,” Cole promises, and he tilts his forehead against Kai. “Not if you don’t want me to.”_


	5. Five

He’s soaking wet. That’s the first thing he realizes as he opens his eyes, gasps for air. Cole’s there and so is Nya, looking absolutely panicked, his hands on either side of Kai’s face. Kai blinks hard, tries to sit up. His chest aches, and he feels like he weighs a thousand pounds.

Behind Cole, he can see the others bursting into the room, Sensei in front.

“What happened?” He asks, breathing hard.

“He just started burning up again,” Cole says, taking his hands away. “He was thrashing, and Nya used her power to dump water on him to cool him down. This hasn’t happened since that first day!"

Sensei comes over, puts a hand to Kai's head.

“The fuck is happening to me?” Kai manages to get out. Behind Wu, he see’s Nya grab Jay’s arm in a frightened way. He holds onto her just as tightly back.

“I’m not sure,” Wu says, pulling back. He turns to Cole. “I’m going to go and see a friend, a doctor, who may know more about this. Clearly just destroying the snake wasn’t enough to completely negate the effects of its poison.”

“We’ll come with you,” Zane offers, but Wu holds up a hand.

“You need to be here, in case more attacks.” He turns to Cole. “I’ll be a day or two. Call me if anything changes.”

Cole nods, one of his dutiful leader nods, and Kai feels like he’s in pretty good hands if Wu’s instructed Cole to take care of him. Because really, Cole often manages to do the impossible out of sheer power of will, so Kai’s pretty sure he can babysit him and keep him alive while Sensei does what he needs to. The thought makes Kai smile a bit.

"Come with me, Zane" Sensei sweeps out of the room, and Zane follows him. The others stand awkward for a few minutes, uncertain.

Able to use his arms again, Kai gestures to the bed. “Not that I didn’t appreciate your quick thinking,” he says to them with a half-grin, “but I’m sort of sitting in a giant pile of water here?”

Jay sniggers, and the others seem to rush into action.

“I’ll get some new sheets and pillows,” Nya offers, turning.

“I’ll go grab him some clothes,” Jay says, shuffling out behind her.

Nya comes over to the bed, helps Cole peal back the soaked sheets on top of Kai. Kai tries, but he can’t help, and Cole smacks his hand away when he even tries.

“This sucks,” Kai says, but no one responds. Something instinctive makes him reach for Cole when he comes close again, makes him wrap an arm around Cole’s shoulders. It’s like Cole expects it, because he was totally going to lift Kai off the bed like a girl, and Kai thinks they’ve done this before.

It’s sort of weird, holding on to Cole while he walks him over to the chair in the corner of the room and then sets Kai down. It’s definitely something they’ve been doing this week, Kai thinks. Cole’s way too practiced at it to be winging it.

He tries not to be disturbed at the fact that he can’t use his legs, really. He can wiggle his toes, which is sort of comforting, but it’s so much effort

Cole goes into the hallway and returns right away with a first aid kit.

Nya takes the rest of the sheets off and the pillows too, and leaves the room to put them somewhere. Nya returns with new pillows and sheets, and she quickly uses a large power fan to dry out the mattress. Jay comes back with some new clothes for Kai, and together he and Cole manage to shirk Kai out of his wet shirt and pajama bottoms and get him into new dry clothes.

Its horridly embarrassing. The shirt is easy enough. Kai can almost stay sitting on his own, but Cole was right, he needs help getting his arms all the way up. He can see why people in hospitals got kept in easy to remove gowns.

Cole takes about 3 minutes in-between shirts to strip off and replace Kai’s wet bandage, and he gets a brief look at the wound causing all the trouble. Its dark red, angry looking, rimmed in a sort of circle. It’s swollen, too, all puffed up like a giant sting. Which it is, Kai thinks. He got stuck with a large stinger full of poison. The wound, he thinks, is suspiciously close to his heart.

For the pants, Cole picks him up again, holding him close to him, their chests pushed together in a surprisingly intimate way, while Jay bends down and picks up Kai’s feet one at a time and slips them into the loose red pajama’s.

“I feel like an invalid,” Kai says to no one in particular.

Cole grins sadly. “That’s the fourth time you’d said that this week.”

“And it’s the fourth time it’s true,” Kai responds quickly, and he lets Cole pick him up and carry him back over to the bed, where all of them cover him up in fresh sheets and hover.

“That whole feeling like an invalid thing?” Kai says, and then waves a finger at all of them. “The looks of pity and sorrow are not helping.”

Nya smiles, bends down to take Kai’s hand. “Sensei will find a way to make you better, I know he will. You’ll see.”

Kai nods. He’s not as certain as she is, but then he thinks she’s probably not very certain either. She’s saying what they all need to hear. Even if it’s not necessarily true.

“Come on,” Jay says, “Kai needs some sleep.” Kai gives Jay a look, and he gives one right back. “And don’t look at me like that you-” Jay says something in quick fluid Spanish at him that Kai can’t make out, but he gets the gist easily enough, “I swear, one more scare like that and I will beat you over the head with your own sword!”  
"When did you speak Spanish?" Kai asked while Jay just smirked "There's alot you suckers don't know about me"

Nya starts shooing Jay out, laughing, and Kai rolls his eyes with a grin. Cole pulls over a fold up chair, takes a seat next to Kai’s bed. Kai watches, remembers Cole’s words: I won’t leave, not if you don’t want me to.

Then suprisingly, Skylor miraculously appeared, comes over, rubs a hand over Cole’s head, bends down and gives him a kiss on the top of it. Cole reacts, wraps an arm around her waist, gives her a squeeze, and whoa, Kai thinks, when did that happen? Skylor and Cole? Seriously?

“I’ll bring you guys some food,” she says softly, and then with a small glare and an exasperated look she says to Kai, “Don’t worry, it’ll be out of a box!” and leaves.

Kai’s eyes widen, and he looks to Cole for explanation. “What’d I do?”

Cole grins sheepishly. “You sort of told her you hate her cooking,” he says, and Kai feels his stomach sink. “While you were half out of it, she asked if you wanted her to make you anything special, and you said ‘For god's sake, woman, I’ve already been poisoned once this week’.”

Kai slaps a hand to his face, trying not to smile. “Oh, no. She probably actually will try to poison me now!”

Cole shrugs, his smile growing a little. “Actually she took it pretty well. Agreed not to cook for us without Wu’s help, did some research on cooking classes.”

“I’m still a terrible person,” Kai says, and he stifles a yawn with a hand that suddenly feels very heavy. “I can’t believe I said that.”

“I can,” Cole says, and he sounds wry. Like some of the things Kai’s been saying might be a fond topic of discussion for him.

“Look,” Kai says, rolling to be slightly on his side, adjusting to a place where his wound doesn’t hurt. He closes his eyes contentedly. “I think it’s safe to assume that whatever I’ve been saying all week long has been poison induced insanity, and other than Skylor’s cooking, no good will come from repeating any of it.” He smiles to himself. When Cole doesn’t say anything, Kai opens his eyes, and is sort of shocked at what he sees.

Cole’s face has turned cold, sad and hollow in the time it took Kai to roll over, and Kai stiffens, wondering what’s the matter now. Is he sprouting claws? Turning into a bug? Because from the look on Cole’s face, Kai thinks that something terrible has happened.

“Dude,” Kai says, reaching out. “What’s wrong?”

Cole jerks back from Kai’s touch, looks away. His voice sounds choked when he says, “Nothing, sorry. I’m just tired. Go to sleep.”

Kau watches him, lowers his head, waiting to see if Cole actually is okay. “Hey, man, whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“Go to sleep.” Cole says, and this time it’s a firm command, harsh and even a little mean sounding.

“Okay,” Kai says cautiously, sinking down into the pillow. “Sleeping. Got it.”

He closes his eyes, but it takes him a long time to go to sleep with the way his stomach suddenly feels.


	6. Six

“He doesn’t remember,” someone’s voice is saying as Kai comes to. “You have to tell him!”

“Poison induced insanity,” someone mumbles, sounding upset. Kai strains, tries to figure out where the voices are coming from and who they are. “There’s no point.”

“You don’t know that-” the voice breaks off as he shifts, rolls onto his back.

“Kai?” Someone says in the dark, suddenly hovering over him. “You okay?”

Kai lifts a hand, rubs at his eyes, nods. “Time is it?”

Something lights up, and he can see Zane’s face looking down at the clock. “Almost eleven.” he looks over his shoulder, stands, and the light goes dim. “I should get to bed,” he says to whoever is there.

“Yeah, go,” Cole says, and he walks over in the dark, flicks on a nightlight on the wall. “I got this. Thanks man”  
"Anytime Cole"

Kai can see their figures a little better now thanks to the light, and he watches Skylor give Cole a short tight hug before she leans back and whispers to Kai, “Sorry if we woke you. Feel better.”

The light from the hallway spills into the room when she leaves, but she closes the door behind her and shuts it out again.

“You okay?” Cole asks, still standing next to the nightlight.

Kai contemplates. “Sort of,” he says slowly, embarrassed and annoyed. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Cole actually grins, rolls his eyes. “Always the middle of the night with you,” he jokes, pulling Kai’s covers back. “I should have known.”

Kai is glad it’s dark, because he’s sure his face is a picture of mortification. Cole bends down, puts a hand under Kai’s knees and one around his back. Kai wraps a weak arm around Cole’s shoulder, and Cole’s lifts him up easily.

“If there’s one good thing that will come from this,” Kai mumbles as Cole nudges open the door to the hallway, “It’s that I’m going to have a great figure by the time its over. No belly fat to be found here.”

Cole doesn’t respond, just takes Kai to the bathroom and acts perfectly professional while he helps him. They don’t make small talk, because this is already awkward. Of course, this isn’t the first time they’ve been stuck in a bathroom together, Kai thinks, thinking back to the time when they were glued together. Now that had been awkward.

When Cole carries him back into the room, Kai can’t help but make some quips about their position. “Bet you don’t have to lift any weights this week, either,” he jokes, “getting your work out easily enough.”

“And you say I need comedy classes,” Cole says as he lays Kai back into his bed. “You’ve already made that joke.”

Kai lets his mouth fall open, annoyed. “Seriously? Man, this really sucks. Not only am I bedridden, I’m repetitive and predictable.”

Cole throws the covers back over him, stands, puts his hands on his hips for a moment. He looks like he wants to say something, even in the dim light Kai can see it, but he hesitates.

Finally, Kai asks “What?”

“You really don’t remember anything,” Cole says quietly, and it’s more like a statement than a question. “Nothing at all.”

Kai shrugs, reaches for the glass of water on the table, is actually surprised when he can grip it. “No, I’m just messing with you guys to freak you out,” he jokes, takes a drink of water. He sets the glass down, looks back at Cole. “I wish someone would tell me what happened. I think it’s pretty clear my mind is in one piece for the time being.”

Cole sits down on his chair, which Kai hopes he hasn’t spent the whole week in because it looks wretched uncomfortable. “Where do you want me to start?”

“After I got attacked, I guess?” Kai says, thinking. “I mean, I pretty much know that the snake got me, but I don’t remember much after that.”

Cole sighs, rubs a hand over his face. “He got me and Jay, too. We didn’t get stung, though. Zane managed to subdue him with the ice shurikens while I carried you back here.” Kai thinks to the quick flash of memory he’d gotten of Cole telling him not to give up. “You were burning up with a fever. You stopped breathing, actually, so Nya and I did CPR-”

“Whoa, hey, no one told me I died!” Kai says, flailing his weak arms as best he can.

“Yes, we did,” Cole grits out, and oh, Kai remembers, right, memory loss. He probably shouldn’t be taking it out on Cole.

“Sorry,” he says, and makes a gesture for him to continue.

“Sensei used a power to help you breathe, and since I was injured too I stayed here with you while they destroyed the snake.” Cole continues, his voice sounding somewhere between pained and angry the whole time. “When he was gone, we thought you’d go back to normal, but you didn’t. So Wu pulled out all the sacred texts and found out that the snake was an especially rare and deadly one called Scorpicobrai, only summoned by the Serpentine in the afterlife to take out their greatest enemies.”

“Well, obvious, the snake missed,” Kai jokes. Cole gives him a small smile, and Kai hopes he hasn’t made that joke before, too. “Wait, go back, you were injured too?”

Cole pauses, nods. “The snske snapped my ankle when he flipped me over.”

Kai thinks, considers what he knows. “Wait. Hold it. You carried me all the way back here from the battle on a broken ankle?”

Cole looks at him, shrugs like this isn’t a big deal.

“Jesus, Cole,” Kai says, rubbing his face with a hand.

“My elemental power took care of it,” Cole says dismissively. “Anyway, Wu thought that since you were a ninja that your elemental power would help you get rid of the poison on its own. He mixed up some ancient pain killer sleeping tea for you, and then when you were out, the rest of us… learned some healing powers and tried them on you.”

“Healing powers?” Kai asks, raising an eyebrow. “I thought only Ninja Masters could do that stuff? Or Lloyd and Sensei?”

“Wu did a couple,” Cole says, and he shrugs again. “Said it wouldn’t hurt for us to try."

Cole waits, like that’s the end of the story, but something on his face says there’s more. Kai gives him a look. Cole sighs.

“And since I was stuck here with my ankle, I took care of you all week long while everyone else was busy looking for ways to make you better or fighting other weirdos.” Cole finishes, and he shifts, uncomfortable under Kai’s stare.

“Thanks for that, by the way,” Kai says, gesturing around. “It seems like you’re doing a pretty good job.”

“You’re welcome,” Cole says, and the corners of his mouth turn up a little.

They sit in silence for a while. Sometimes Kai closes his eyes, processing what he’s heard, trying to see if he can call any of it to memory. It doesn’t work, and each time he feels Cole’s eyes on him, but Cole looks away as soon as Kai opens his eyes every time.

Something else happened, Kai thinks. Something that’s making Cole act… weird.

When Kai opens his eyes for the fifth time and watches Cole look away, he sighs dramatically.

“Do you want some food?” Cole avoids, staring at the door. “Zane brought in some ham and cheese and crackers earlier. I ate a lot of it but there’s some left.”

“I’m okay,” Kai says, and then wonders, “Hey, so when did you and Skylor become a thing?”

Cole’s head snaps over, his eyes wide. “What?”

Kai hopes he didn’t misunderstand. “Well, I just, earlier, with the kissing and the hugging, it looked like, but hey if I’m wrong forget I mentioned it!”

Cole stares at him, his face softens a little. He shakes his head, laughs a little. “You are an idiot,” he says, and Kai objects but Cole waves him off. “Skylor and I are just friends. She just… feels bad for me, is all.”

Kai stops, fixes Cole with his most skeptical look. “Cole,” he admonishes, “come on man. Don’t sell yourself short! I’m sure it’s more than that-”

The look Cole gives him makes him stop. He holds up his hands.

“Alright, okay, I’ll shut up.” Kai says, but Cole starts shaking his head again, and the look on his face should look happy since it’s a smile but it looks more… upset than anything else.

“She feels sorry for me,” he repeats slowly, “because I like someone else. And I thought that they liked me too, but I was wrong.” Cole seems to curl in on himself, like admitting this is the most ridiculous thing he’s had to do, ever.

Kau furrows his brow. “Who do you like? Nya? 'Cause I guess I would be okay with that” He asks, sort of surprised. He’d never looked for it, but he thinks he would have noticed if Cole was crushing on Nya.

Cole slowly shakes his head.

“Not Nya?” Kai confirms. “Then who? That Seliel chick? P.I.X.A.L? That creepy Harumi girl who Lloyd is gaga over?”

Cole looks over at him, gives him a long, hard look. Kai waits to see if Cole is going to tell him, makes a face and gestures like ‘dude, come on’ when he doesn’t. Cole grins, shakes his head. “Never mind. It’s not important. Just shut up and focus on getting better, okay?”

Kai sighs, would fold his arms if they didn’t still feel like jello. “That is such a copout,” he says instead, closing his eyes. “And you’re being awfully bossy to an invalid.”

“You are not an invalid,” Cole says immediately, annoyance clear in his voice. “You’re going to be fine, so hush.”

Kai pauses, considers, opens his eyes. “We don’t know that though, do we?”

Cole looks at him.

“It’s possible I won’t get better. I could be stuck this way, if Wu can’t find a cure. Let me ask you something, that snake, any of his other victims ever live?” Kai guesses, can tell from the look of guilt on Cole’s face that he’s right. “So we have no idea if I’ll even survive this, or if the poison is already rotting my brain-”

Cole interrupts. “Kai, stop,” he says.

Kai talks over him. “-and that’s why I can’t remember anything, or if it’s eating away at my muscles and the power is just barely managing to keep me alive somehow-”

“Stop it,” Cole says again, louder this time.

“-and it’s not like the team can go without a red ninja forever, so we’re gonna have to pass the title onto another fire user, oh wait, there isn't one, if I don’t get better soon and if it’s only the fire power thing keeping me alive then what happens-”

“Kai, stop it!” Cole lunges forward, grabs Kai by the shirt, shakes him. “Just shut up, okay?”

Kai stops, is so surprised by Cole losing his shit that he shuts up. Cole drops him back onto the bed, and Kai deflates as Cole walks away from the bed, scrubs a tired hand over his face.

“You’re such an asshole,” he says, and Kai thinks he can hear the same choked off sound as earlier, the same one that mumbled poison induced insanity, there’s no point to Skylor in the dark. “Look, I’m gonna go get someone else to sit with you for a while,” he says, heading for the door.

Kai lifts a hand, “Cole, hey, I’m sorry.” He says, and Cole stares at the door. “I’m just… scared, is all. This is hard.”

Cole pauses, and Kai thinks he sees him shaking a little.

“Come on, man,” Kai tries again, wishing he could get out of the bed and go over to him and not be stuck here where he can’t do anything but use his words. “You said you wouldn’t leave if I didn’t want you to.”

Cole turns back to him, and in the dim light Kai can see the pain on his face. It makes Kai freeze, makes him feel cold all over, and he remembers suddenly that he hadn’t told Cole he remembered that. And, oh. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

Cole opens his mouth, closes it, closes his eyes like he’s bracing himself, and then he turns and leaves the room. He closes the door behind him, and Kai is left alone in the semi-darkness.


	7. Seven

It’s a while before Skylor comes into the room. She’s got on her fluffy yellow slippers and a large orange shall around her shoulders. Even in the dim light, she’s totally illuminated because of the light colors.

She sits down in Cole’s chair. “Hey, how are you doing?” she says around a yawn.

Kai gives her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry you had to get up to come babysit me.”

Skylor shakes her head. “It’s not a problem. Actually, I was really surprised. We’ve been asking Cole to let us help take care of you all week, but he refused.”

“Did he?” Kai looks away from her, wondering again.

“Is everything okay?” She asks a moment later, when he’s quiet.

“Hey, who does Cole like?” Kai asks abruptly, turning back. “It’s not Nya, and apparently it’s not you, so who else do we know?”

Skylor looks at him with confused look, but it slowly turns into recognition. “Are you serious?”

Kai does his ‘why wouldn’t I be’ face at her, and she balks. She laughs, raises a hand to her mouth to cover it, facepalms, looks back at Kai and reaches for his hand.

“Kai, I love you, but you can be really dense sometimes,” she says, giving his hand a squeeze.

“I think it’s terrible that you think this is so funny,” Kai says, annoyed.

“What did you say to him?” Skylor wonders. “He seemed really upset.”

“I…” Kai trails off, not wanting to repeat himself. “There was discussion of my possible demise,” he summarizes, shrugging. “I’m not sure why he got so mad, though."

“Really,” Skylor says, sarcasm evident in her voice. “You discussed the possibility that you’re going to die, and you can’t see why that would upset him?”

Kai sighs, looks at her with pleading eyes.

Skylor smiles sadly. “Did anyone ever tell you what’s gone on this week?”

Kai nods. “Yeah, Cole told me a bit, about the attack and everything. How you guys tried to use healing powers on me.”

Skylor stares at him for a minute, chewing on her red lips.

“You only do that when you aren’t sure if you should say something,” Kai tells her, pointing.

“Spill.”

“Kai,” she hesitates. “I’m sure he told you the basic version, but let me elaborate. When you got stung, Cole jumped on the snake. It grabbed him and threw him 20 feet in the air, flipped him and snapped his ankle. Then, Zane told him to get you to safety, and he carried you back to the bounty, over 2 miles, on a broken ankle. When we got back, and you started convulsing and not breathing, the rest of us froze. 

Cole started giving you CPR.” Skylor narrates it in a surprisingly serious tone. “And when Wu told us he wasn’t sure there was anything he could do for you, Cole pulled out the old texts, did the research, made Wu try a healing power on you and then insisted, against Wu’s permission, on doing one of his own.

“His is the one that worked,” she says, searching Kai’s face. “And then, Cole spent the whole week at your side, taking care of you. He wouldn’t leave you. He slept here.”

Kai looks at her, feeling heavy. “And then I woke up and didn’t remember any of it…”

“And now you’re asking who he likes.” Skylor says, raising her eyebrows like the answer is obvious.

Kai throws his head back into the pillows. “I sort of hate this whole thing,” he says dejectedly. “I’m just going to go to sleep and pretend to forget everything again in the morning and not be a total jerk to him this time."

“Kai,” Skylor chides gently, and he looks back over at her.

“I can’t even,” Kai raises his other hand, gestures to himself. “I’m stuck here, it’s not like I can chase him down or anything. And what do I say?”

“You could say what you said to him the first time you woke up,” Skylor says, smiling.

Kai isn’t sure he wants to know. “Which is?”

Skylor giggles. 

“You were all red and flushed because you kept on shaking. You looked up at him after his healing power worked, said ‘Is it hot in here or is it just you?’ and passed out again.”

“Ohmygod,” Kai groans, flushing.

“The next time, you totally kissed him when he went to pick you up,” she laughs again, and Kai holds up his hands.

“He looked terrified!”

“Stop, stop, just stop,” he says, grinning at her infectious laughter. 

“I don’t need to know anymore. Man, no wonder he thinks it was poison induced insanity.”

“Well,” Skylor says, shrugging. “Maybe it was. Doesn’t mean there wasn’t some truth in it, somewhere.” She gives his hand a squeeze, let’s go. “I’m going back to bed, Im sharing Nya's room till I get custody to ban Dareth from the Noodle Restuarant, he broke in and tried to steal some Puffy Potstickers. I’ll send him back in, okay?”

Kai nods, watches her go, waits, trying to will any memories of these events to mind. He closes his eyes, takes some deep breathes…


	8. Eight

He wakes up when the Bounty's alarm goes off. Cole starts in his chair, falls out of it before scrambling to his feet.

Cole looks at him. Kai tries not to flush. How had he fallen asleep?

"Go," Kai says, pointing to the door.

Cole hesitates, "You shouldn't be left alone. What if something happens-"

"Cole, I'll be fine, just go!" Kai insists. He makes shooing motions, but Cole is heading back towards him.

He pulls Kai's phone off the dresser, sets it in his hand, already open with Cole's number punched in. "If anything happens, just hit this and-"

"Cole, I know how my phone works," Kai says, "now go!"

Cole gives him one last worried look before bolting out the door.

Kai breathes out a long sigh, picks up a hand to rub at his chest wound. From what he can feel, it's still swollen and puffy, and it still feels warm. He doesn't feel quite as weak, but when he tests himself he still can't fully lift his legs.

He thinks back to the night before, to Skylor telling him what was what, to the looks Cole had been giving him. He scolds himself for falling asleep again, wonders what Cole thought when Skylor sent him back.

He lays there in the quiet, oddly lonely. It occurs to him that, asleep or not, Cole has been with him for the better part of a week, keeping watch, keeping him company. It gives him a bit of a pang, not knowing what he'd done or said to deserve it. And then knowing he'd screwed it up.

So, Cole was into him. He supposed. It sounded, from the way Skylor said it, like Kai had started it. But he couldn't be sure. He'll have to ask Cole, he guesses, that is if Cole will tell him. He'd certainly left those details out of the story the first time.

Would Kai have believed him if he'd told him? He's not sure.

He rubs at the wound again, wondering. Cole had saved his life, first by reviving him the old fashioned way, then by defying their Sensei to use a Master power... it sure seemed like Cole had started it. So what had happened? He thinks again to Cole's promise in the dark, the only memory he actually has of that week; _I won't leave, not if you don't want me to._ It sounded terribly romantic. Kai had probably eaten it up, egged him on. He hadn't exactly been himself, but then... there was also probably some truth in whatever had happened between them, like Skylor said, because it didn't seem to be freaking Kai out, not like it should, not in the 'suddenly hot for Cole' way or the 'Cole's a guy' way, but in the 'I may have just lost my best friend' sort of way.

Kai groans, frustrated that he can't remember any of it. He closes his eyes, tries to think back to the brief memories he does have, the ones that came back to him when he'd had a flare up yesterday. Then he thinks how odd it is that he remembered things then, while the poison was trying to kill him again. Maybe it really is eating away at his brain, he thinks, and then regrets it as the fear hits him.

He thinks he would have preferred dying quick, in battle, than wasting away for months from poison. He really isn't sure.

He makes a noise, tries to switch his mind back on track, to thinking about Cole and Cole taking care of him and not about death.

He thinks about the dark room again, about Cole lying beside him, his hand over Kai's chest, over his sting, looking at him like Kai was making him happy. He wonders if they'd fallen asleep that way, if Cole had pressed their foreheads together and then kissed him, maybe, after promising not to leave.

He thinks he can almost feel Cole's lips on his when his shoulder starts to get heavy, and he starts to feel warm. He shoots his eyes open, realizes he needs to hit the button on his phone, the one that will make Cole come back and save him somehow, but his fingers won't move, and his eyes fall shut and all he can think is how angry Cole's going to be with him if he dies while Cole's not here...

-

_His vision is foggy, and he's so sweaty, but he can just barely make out Cole above him looking relieved._

_He isn't even sure why he says it. He just grins stupidly, looks up at Cole's pretty face and goes, "Is it hot in here or is it just you?"_

_Cole's eyes go wide, but he smiles, and then he's out of Kai's vision, but Kai thinks he feels Cole's head next to his, thinks he hears Cole mumbling "You're okay" over and over._

_-_

_"Would you just let me help you," Cole says, pulling Kai towards him. Kai isn't in any state to really fight it, what with his body being mostly limp._

Cole _stumbles a little, trying to find a way to lift him. He ends up pulling him up against him, with Kai's head resting on his shoulder, looking over at the floor and Cole's bare feet._

_"I see what you did there," Kai mumbles into Cole's neck, feels the latter shiver, wishes he had the use of his limbs, dammit. "You just wanna hug me."_

_"You are an obnoxious patient," Cole says, but there's a smile in his voice._

Kai _laughs. "This is not how I expected us to play doctor."_

_-_

_"Why are you still here?" Kai says, opening his eyes. He's too warm, under the covers and with Cole's body pressed against him._

Cole _lifts his head, looks at him. "You asked me to stay."_

Kai _thinks, uses a limp hand to push the covers down a little. "Oh, yeah," he agrees, and he snuggles into Cole's side. "Okay, good, stay, yes."_

_And Kai presses his lips up to Cole's again, feels Cole stiffen, then relax, then kiss him back while he rubs a hand down the side of Kai's sweaty face..._

-

He's up, in someone's arms, being shaken, and his cheek feels like it's been smacked. He's cool, ice cold, actually, and when he opens his eyes he shivers, too.

Cole pulls away from him, but doesn't let him go. "You were supposed to push the button!" Cole yells at him, and then pulls Kai back into his chest hard, practically crushes him.

Kai tries to lift a hand to hug him back, but he's so exhausted. "'m sorry," he says into Cole's shoulder. "I tried."

Cole's breathing hard, and it's a long minute before he pulls away, sees how exhausted Kai is and lays him back down on the bed. "Are you cold? I had Nya use water. That was probably a bad idea," Cole says, and he starts wrapping blankets around Kai, who can barely keep his eyes open.

"I remember some stuff," Kai says quickly, but it sounds slurred to him, and this is not how he wants to do this.

Cole pauses, looks at him. "Like what?"

Kai grins stupidly. "I can't use the line now, not when 'm cold." He jokes, and he tries to look at Cole's face, hoping he'll see a smile there. Cole just looks broken. 

"There wus kissing," Kai says sleepily, closing his eyes, "prett' sure there wus a lot of kissing..."


	9. Nine

He can hear voices, somewhere close but not nearby. They all sound familiar, worried, and he thinks that they might be talking about him, but he can’t think of why. He still feels heavy, and he realizes there’s something on his chest.

It only takes a shift of his head, almost all the energy he has to see that it’s Cole, laying beside him, breathing gently, eyes closes, his arm draped over Kai’s chest. Kai takes a second, looks at him, wonders if he’s dreaming, then closes his eyes again.


	10. Ten

He’s being woken up again, but he wants to push whoever it is away and tell them how tired he is. Only they don’t go away, so he cracks his eyes to see...Lloyd (?) staring back at him, and he tries to open his eyes all the way. 'What is he doing here?'

Lloyd had gone to get help, right? So either this is it, and Kai will feel better, or this is it, and Kai will go back to sleep.

“Kai, I need you to wake up now,” He heard Sensei say, and when Kai mumbles something in assent, Sensei backs off.

“Oh, sweetheart,” a familiar voice coos, and he feels a hand on his forehead, and he looks to his side and whoa, there’s his mom. “You must feel awful,” she says, and he tries to focus on her face.

“A bit,” he says, and is then shocked when he sees his dad behind her, and his sister.

The rest of the ninja are there, and Sensei, and some guy in a suit he doesn’t recognize.

“You look like crap, hot head,” Nya says from behind his parents, and he glares at her as best he can.

“Yeah, but at least I have an excuse,” he calls back weakly. “What’s yours?”

She makes a sassy noise, and Jay makes the sound of a sizzle while touching her shoulder. “Half dead and still got it,” he says after, with a grin.

Kai really hopes they’re not here to bid him farewell, because if this is how they’re going to be, then he’s going to kick them out.

He reaches for his moms hand, braces himself. “Are we… are we because Im...well?”

Maya Smith looks stunned for a moment, then laughs. “Absolutely not! My, aren’t you a cold fish these days, honey. Didn’t realize you were so ready to go!”

Kai tries to look relieved, is still a bit worried they’ve brought his family in.

“We’re going to try something, Kai,” Sensei tells him from the foot of the bed. “We’re all going to combine our elemental power and use it to heal you. You’re going to have to use your elemental power, too.”

“Wait, what am I doing?” Kai asks, and Lloyd carries a book over to him.

"When did you come back?" He asks again, but was ignored.

“It’s pretty simple,” he says, sitting down and showing him a symbol. “This will allow us to channel out power into you. Clans used to use it, for spiritual healing. It’s only a couple of strokes-”

“For you,” he quips, feeling a little stronger. “I’m not even sure I can lift my arm.”

Lloyd looks at him worriedly.

“I’ll help him draw the symbol,” the man in the suit says, taking off his outer jacket. “If everyone else can perform their parts, I can hold him up.”

The man steps next to Lloyd, who stands, hands off the book.

“What we’re doing,” he explains to Kai, “is giving you a power boost. The fire ninja powers are trying to cure you, but it’s not enough. So we’re going to super charge you. For a couple of hours, you’re going to feel very high,” he warns, and suddenly Kai likes this plan.

“Cool,” he jokes, and is amused when Cole smiles behind the man.

The man pulls something out of his pocket, lifts Kai's head and slips it around his neck. Kai looks down at a cracked silver amulet. “For luck,” he says, and then Ray and Maya are helping him sit up, and the man takes Kai’s hand as it sets on a small flame.

“This is a little freaky,” he manages, watching his sister and friends ready their hands, their elemental powers starting to appear. He really hopes they don’t mess this up. He gulps.

“It’ll be okay,” Cole assures, and Kai looks over at him, looks at Cole’s face, which is scared but still confident, and Kai nods, trying to believe him.

Everyone starts drawing on some kind of signal, the ninjas drawing their elemental symbols, and when they’ve all finished, the man sitting next to him helps him draw the symbol from the book, the power magnification symbol, and when that’s finished, everyone around him hits their symbols, and then his turns bright white, and before he knows it, so does his vision.


	11. Eleven

_This would be awkward, if we hadn't done this once before," Kai jokes as Cole carries him out of the bathroom._

_"Slightly different circumstances," Cole grins, reaching the bed and laying him back down._

_"And you totally want to jump my bones now, so there's that." Kai quips. Cole gives him at look, but it's a good look, Kai thinks._

_"Don't pretend like you don't totally want me to," Cole says, looking away, and Kai laughs weakly._

_"When I'm better," Kai says, reaching out and tugging on Cole's shirt, "I won't pretend."_

_Kai pulls him close, until Cole's right within range, but Kai knows it's up to Cole to make the final move forward, to kiss him, because Kai doesn't have the strength. Cole hesitates, lingering a breath away. He's close enough that if Kai tries to focus on him too hard he gets a third eye, so Kai looks down at his lips instead, tugs a little bit more on Cole's shirt._

_"Kai," Cole says, bringing a hand up to his face._

_"Cole," Kai mimics, wishing Cole would kiss him already._

_"If this is the poison talking," Cole says slowly, hesitating again._

_"It's not," Kai promises, tugging on Cole's shirt. "And you have no excuse," he reminds gently. "Being poisoned didn't make you carry me back here on a broken foot, didn't make you risk everything to save me."_

_"No," Cole agrees, "my feelings are real."_

_Kai grins, pulling all the strength in his body to lift his head towards Cole's as he says, "So are mine."_

_He presses their lips together, listens to Cole make a small noise as he presses Kai back into the pillows, falls on top of him, twists himself around Kai while they kiss._


	12. Twelve

Poison does strange things to your inhibitions, he thinks, his eyes fluttering open.

He feels… like himself. He’s able to sit right up, is surprised when he can not only flex his fingers but can move and flex his legs. He feels weak, but not like before. He feels like he’s been in bed all week long with the flu, and it’s finally out of his system. With hesitation he reaches down and pulls his shirt back, takes off his bandage.

The gaping wound that had been before is now down to a small white scar. Kai breathes a sigh of relief and looks up, expecting to see someone… but not his sister.

“Sup, hot head,” she says, smacking her gum and grinning. Her feet are propped up on the bed, and she’s got a magazine in her hands.

“Would you stop calling me that, puddle water?” He responds, reaching down to give her leg a hard pinch. “Especially in front of the others,” he tells her, and she smiles. “Im hardly a hot head anymore!”

"Debatable, much?,” she squeaks, pulls her foot away from his pinching. “Glad to see you’re okay, bro.”

He nods, feeling okay, which is such a huge relief. “Where’s Cole?” He asks before he thinks about it, and immediately regrets it when he sees a large smirk on Nya’s face.

“Oh, you mean your boyfriend?” She teases, and he glares.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” he objects immediately, then regrets that, too.

“He went to take a shower and catch some Z’s. Remember, he’s been at your side all week,” she wiggles her eyebrows, and he swipes for her.

She rolls out of the chair and away, and Kai swings his feet off the bed and onto the floor to chase her, and is actually surprised that they support him.

The door opens, and Sensei and his parents come in, chatting happily. He waves.

“Oh, my little Kaito!” Maya says, coming forward and kissing his cheek, giving him a hug.

“Ah, Maya,” Ray groans, “He's just survived deadly snake poison. Don’t kill him from embarrassment.”

She laughs, pulls back. “Embarrass you? In front of Sensei? Please, this man helped me change your diapers,” she chides, and Kai squeezes his eyes shut.

“That’s something I could have gone my whole life without knowing and I wish I had done,” Kai says, and Sensei laughs.

“She was threatening to pull out the baby photo’s to show the ninjas,” he says, and Kai’s eyes snap open in horror, “but I talked her out of that one.”

“There’s still time,” Maya winks at him.

“Okay, seriously,” Kai jokes, stepping away from his mom. “When are you leaving?”


	13. Thirteen

His parents stays just long enough to embarrass the hell out of him, and luckily Nya,--two days after he comes back around--and then leaves with promises to send Jay, Zane and Lloyd plenty of photos of him as an infant.

The man in the suit--who he finds out was a cousin of Skylor’s--leaves pretty much as soon as Kai wakes up, making some quip about ninjas needing to stick together. He takes the amulet back from Kai, too.

Kai finds that he’s pretty much back to normal. He has the appetite of a starved gorilla, and Zane makes extra at each meal to help Kai get his strength back. He’s also told to take it easy during training, and while he’d thought that would be cool, he really wants to get back out there and re-hone his body. It still feels a little clumsy sometimes.

And Cole… Cole pretty much avoids him at all costs during all of this. He sits far away from him when they eat, doesn’t train with him, doesn’t even make jokes with him. He even avoids his eyes, and Kai doesn’t know how to make him see…

It’s a few days after his parents leaves before he manages to corner him in the courtyard after dinner.

“Cole,” he calls, watches Cole jump, grins. “You are avoiding me.”

Cole looks up him, makes a hard face like he doesn’t know what Kai’s talking about. Kai goes over, sits down next to him, stares out at the courtyard. “I just thought,” Cole tries after a few minutes of silence, “you might want some space.”

Kai grins, scoots a little closer, bumps his shoulder against Cole’s. “And here I distinctly remember you saying you wouldn’t go anywhere if I didn’t want you to.”

Cole looks over at him, and Kai keeps looking forward. “You told me you didn’t remember.”

“I didn’t,” Kai admits, chancing a quick glance over at Cole. He looks… hopeful, which is perfect. Hopeful is perfect. “At least, not at first. I still don’t remember everything.” He pauses, takes his hands out of his pockets. He reaches over, puts his hand on top of one of Cole’s. “But I think I remember enough.”

Cole sighs, pull his hand away and scrubs it over his face roughly. “Look, I didn’t try to take advantage of you or anything,” he says, standing up and moving away from Kai. “But you kissed me, twice, and I though, I mean, I was pretty sure it was just the poison, but you were so sure it wasn’t and… We should just,” he hesitates, leans against one of the pillars, crossing his arms. “Let’s just…”

Cole trails off, looks over at Kai for help. “If you’re going to say forget it, I’m going to have to make a bad memory loss joke.”

Cole grins, which isn’t entirely a bad sign. Kai stands up, walks over to him.

“Maybe you should… remind me, about the rest of it first,” Kai prods, standing in Cole’s space.

Cole looks at him, sighs, leans forward and presses a quick kiss to Kai’s lips. He pulls back, looks utterly defeated, waits for Kai to say something.

Kai swallows. “Remind me some more,” he says happily, and Cole makes a face at him. “Okay, sorry, jeez. I just… It seems like something pretty life altering occurred last week, and I wish I knew about more of it.”

Cole looks away from him. “I told you before, that my feelings were real,” he says quietly, and Kai remembers that part. Remembers what he said back. “It wasn’t just last week.”

Not surprisingly, the only thing Kai can think of to say is a childish taunt, so he presses his lips together, keeps it in. Cole catches it, eyes him suspiciously.

“What?” He asks, the corners of his own mouth turning up.

Kai lets himself smile, reaches out to poke Cole’s chest. “You like me,” he sing-songs, “you really, really like me.”

“Kaiii,” Cole says warningly, and Kai looks at him.

“Cooole,” he echoes, amused.

Cole sighs again, looks away from him. Kai steps forward, reaches out to tug on Cole’s gi. Cole watches Kai’s hand.

“I think,” Kai says quietly, trying to be serious, “that I meant what I said, too. Poison or not, I meant it,” he whispers, leaning in, “when I said my feelings were real, too.” And he leans forward, locks his mouth with Cole’s and it feels familiar, even though all he has are vague memories of it, and he can’t help but wonder with a fond grin how much kissing they did that week.

Cole kisses him back, raises a hand to the back of Kai’s neck, steps closer. Yeah, Kai thinks, this is a pretty good reward for being poisoned and nearly dying. It’s not what he thought would happen, certainly, but he’s already decided he’s okay with it. Hell, his sick self decided that for him.

They kiss until there’s no space between them, until Cole pulls away and leans his head into Kai’s shoulder, and Kai smiles as he tilts their heads together. But then Cole reaches up with his hand, tugs on the collar of Kai’s shirt and pulls it back until his circular white scar is exposed.

He kisses it gently, which Kai should find sweet, but it just makes him laugh. Cole turns his head, looks at him like he’s being annoying.

“Man,” Kai says, still chuckling. “No wonder I fell for you. Your sap must have been very appealing to my near-death self. Such a cheese.”

Cole narrows his eyes, starts to pull back, but Kai holds onto him now that he finally has the strength to.

“Hey,” he objects, nudging his lips next to Cole’s again. “I didn’t say stop.”

And he kisses Cole again, let’s Cole kiss him back in the dim porch light, thinks again of Cole’s idle promise to a sick, exhausted Kai.

“I won’t leave, either,” Kai tells him when they pull apart. “Not if you don’t want me to.”


	14. Fourteen

Sensei was right, as it turned out. He couldn’t predict the long-term effects of the poison. Kai get’s hot more often than he used to, and his sleeping habits don’t go back to normal for a long time. He needs to sleep an extra few hours every night just to feel normal, and on days where they have particularly difficult battles he feels like a zombie.

And he ends up dating Cole, which is also unexpected but not unwelcomed. And Cole keeps taking care of him, even if it’s in a more reduced fashion.

Overall he feels pretty lucky. Not only did he survive a legendary snake intent on killing him, he ended up with a boyfriend. Wins all around.

“I say,” Lloyd tells them one night at dinner, “that we take tomorrow off and go out and celebrate.”

Kai looks up from slurping his noodles. “What are we celebrating?”

“You’re recovery!” Jay exclaims at him from across the table, smiling. “It’s been a month since you got better.”

“Oh,” Kai thinks, tilting his head. He looks around at his friends, all staring at him. He manages to keep a straight face when he says, “What did I get better from, exactly?”

As predicted, there’s a quick, tense silence as everyone exchanges worried looks. Beside him, Cole has stiffened, put his fork and bowl down. It’s mean, Kai thinks, but he wouldn’t be him if he didn’t do it.

He looks around at them all, starts to smile, and Nya sees it first, followed by Zane, smiling, and tosses her napkin at him. “Kai!”

“I’m gonna kill you,” Cole says from beside him when he sees his smile, deflating.

Kai laughs, has to avoid everything that’s thrown at him as everyone breathes sighs of relief.

“It was a joke, ow!” He exclaims while Lloyd jabs his with a spoon. “I think a day off sounds like a good plan.”

“Oh, we've just changed our minds,” Lloyd says as he resumes eating. “You’re going to spend the day running up and down the Bounty cleaning up after us all.”

Everyone laughs, and Kai hopes he’s not serious. He finishes his noodles, courtesy of Skylor, laughs when Zane brings out a small dessert with an apprehensive face. They all try it, and it’s actually perfect, but he looks suspiciously at Kai, like he’s the only one he can trust to be honest, even though now he knows Kai really was delierious.

“I could have made it terrible on purpose,” he warns, sticking a finger out and waggling it at all of them. “You guys are too trusting.”

When everyone disperses, Kai spends a few minutes rubbing at his scar. Sometimes, it still burns a little, and every time he wonders if he’ll ever remember more of that week, remember more of what Cole did for him. He doesn’t, and the wound just burns idly, like a dying flame.

Cole tells him everything, eventually, everything they said and did, and Kai really starts to regret not remembering it. He wonders, sometimes, if it was the poison running through him that had kept him from remembering, or if it had been him, trying to protect himself somehow. Either way, the memories don’t come back.

It’s okay though, Kai decides, sitting with Cole in bed one night, Cole’s arm draped lazily around him and Kai playing with a rubber band. He reaches over, pulls it tight, slaps it against Cole’s tight thigh, laughs when Cole starts, surprised.

Cole reaches for the rubber band, and they play a quick game of keep away before Kai cheats and starts kissing him, and that usually stops Kai from getting in trouble these day.

They have plenty of time to make more memories, Kai thinks with a grin. The first ones aren’t nearly as important as all the ones that come after.


End file.
